Retailers step up discounting to attract more holiday shoppers

NEW YORK -- With less than two weeks left until Christmas, retailers struggling with disappointing sales slashed prices further, but it might not have been enough for some to make sales goals.

"They're desperately trying to move out merchandise, but they are not doing so successfully," Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Trend Report, said Sunday. "This is the home stretch, and they are whipping the horse, but the horse is responding only sluggishly."

Despite the abundance of bargains, many shoppers -- nervous about job security and political uncertainties -- were reluctant to splurge.

"I am spending less, just buying toys for my friends' children," said Judy Boudreau, from Jupiter, Fla., shopping at Macy's in New York. "I have to be more conservative, given what has happened to my investment portfolio."

For retailers, the disappointments of the season keep growing.

The Thanksgiving shopping weekend, while solid, failed to give merchants the relief they were hoping for, and sales have been limping along since then.

The Washington, D.C.-based National Retail Federation predicts total holiday retail sales, which excludes restaurant and auto sales, will rise in the range of 2.5 percent to 3 percent, to roughly $206 billion.

That would make it the worst holiday-season retail performance since 1990, when sales were basically unchanged.

Sales at Bloomingdale's were running above expectations this weekend, according to chairman Michael Gould. But at K-B Toys, which operates 1,400 stores, the weekend's sales were up only in the low single digits from a year ago. Spokesman John Reilly said sales of game consoles and game software were strong, but toys sales were unchanged from a year ago.

Struggling Gap Inc. took even more aggressive markdowns to move out its merchandise, ranging from crocheted scarves that had retailed for $28 and were now $9.99, to lambswool and angora-blended sweaters that had dropped from $78 to $39.99.

At Saks Fifth Avenue's New York flagship there were racks of designer merchandise discounted by as much as 40 percent.

At Macy's New York store, consumers swarmed over piles of discounted handbags and sweaters. For some items that were marked down twice, consumers were able to shave 90 percent off the original price -- a great deal for a shopper, but disastrous for a store's receipts.

"You're really getting more for your money," said Laura Manning, from Medford, N.Y. "I got sweaters that were 60 percent off for my sons in stores on Long Island. They're giving it away."